FILE - This March 25, 2013, file photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Alton Nolen of Moore, Okla. Nolen was charged Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014, with first-degree murder in the gruesome ... more

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Oklahoma man charged with murder after allegations of beheading

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An Oklahoma man was charged with murder and assault Tuesday after he allegedly beheaded a co-worker in revenge for being suspended from work, a prosecutor said.

Although Alton Alexander Nolen was a recent convert to Islam and used Arabic terms during his assault, police said there are no known links to Islamist terrorists or the recent beheadings of Westerners in Syria. However, one official said Nolen apparently had “an infatuation with beheadings.”

If convicted, Nolen, 30, could face the death penalty in the knife attack last week at a Vaughan Foods plant in Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City. He is charged with killing one co-worker and wounding another, said Greg Mashburn, the district attorney for the area, which includes Cleveland County.

The episode began when Nolen and a co-worker named Traci Johnson had an argument about race, Mashburn said.

Nolen, who is black, “was basically saying he didn’t like white people,” Mashburn said. Johnson complained to the company’s human resources department, and the department suspended Nolen on Thursday. At that point, Nolen went home, got a large kitchen knife and returned “to get revenge on certain people he felt responsible,” Mashburn said.

He attacked Colleen Hufford, 54, from behind, killing her and severing her head, Mashburn said.

Nolen had tried to convert several co-workers to Islam, according to Moore police. Federal law enforcement officials told The Washington Post that Nolen was a recent convert who had a “provocative” Facebook page with a photo of Osama bin Laden.

“Obviously, there was some sort of infatuation with beheadings,” Mashburn said. “The manner in which it was carried out seemed to be related to his interest in killing someone in that way.”

Still, it appeared to be “an isolated incident” triggered by the suspension, Mashburn said.

“The altercation that occurred earlier in the day had more to do with race than it was with him trying to convert anyone,” Mashburn said. He said that there were apparently three people of different races that Nolen believed had oppressed him.

Federal officials have said they are viewing this as a case of workplace violence rather than terrorism. But the nature of the attack, occurring in the wake of the high-profile beheadings of two American journalists in Syria, has led some to label the incident terrorism. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential presidential candidate for the Republican Party, said the incident is “an act of violence that is associated with terrorism.”

The FBI continues to investigate Nolen’s background. The agency is looking for any possible links to terrorism.